This paper explores the occluded nature of the statement of purpose genre and calls for a genre-based approach to corrective feedback to help L2 English speaking applicants conform to the often vague and inexplicit conventions of the genre so that their texts better meet the gatekeeper’s expectations.

In this paper, with the observations with great variations in using the vacuous object extraposition, wesuggest that the vacuous object extraposition is triggered by functional motivations such as the speaker’s affirmation of the CP clause, rather than simply by the lexical semantics (e.g., factive) of the matrix predicate.

This paper considers some psychological issues occur in studying English as a Second Language by adult students. Communicative insecurity as a type of the performance anxiety appears while a non-native speaker communicates with native speakers. The paper presents ways to overcome psycological issues by using texts of popular songs.

Due to the challenges of tutoring student writers who use English as a second language (L2), this study applies concepts of L2 acquisition through a lens of sociolinguistics to the discussion of L2 student writers in the writing center. This paper suggests better strategies for tutoring L2 students.